Articles
Effect of system, grafting, and harvest maturity stage on the quality of tomatoes grown in greenhouses
Article number
1396_61
Pages
465 – 470
Language
English
Abstract
It is important for greenhouse growers to increase fruit quality to meet consumers preference for nutritious food.
Established technologies that are utilized within greenhouse systems include grafting and hydroponics.
Aquaponics is an emerging technology that combines crop and fish cultivation to minimize chemical fertilizer inputs.
We evaluated a decoupled aquaponic (DAP) system, where nutrients were supplemented to optimize crop productivity.
The goal of this work was to explore the integration of the DAP system with grafting on tomato fruit quality.
Furthermore, we harvested fruit at different maturity stages (light red, pink, red) and evaluated quality to determine how DAP and grafting affect the development of quality attributes during ripening on and off the vine.
The experiments were performed at the University of Thessaly.
A split-plot RCBD was utilized with three replications whereby the nutrient system (hydroponic vs.
DAP) was the main plot, and grafting (nongrafted vs. grafted) were the sub-plots.
Grafting and the nutrient system did not significantly affect the titratable acidity, sugar-acid ratio, or dry matter of the fruit.
On-vine ripened fruit had a significantly higher sugar-acid ratio at the light red and red stage than fruit ripened off-vine.
The DAP system produced fruit with comparable lycopene and β-carotene content red stage compared to the hydroponic control.
Grafting also did not impact carotenoid concentrations at the red stage.
More research is needed to determine how the integration of these technologies will impact the quality of tomatoes and other fruiting vegetables commonly grown in greenhouses.
Established technologies that are utilized within greenhouse systems include grafting and hydroponics.
Aquaponics is an emerging technology that combines crop and fish cultivation to minimize chemical fertilizer inputs.
We evaluated a decoupled aquaponic (DAP) system, where nutrients were supplemented to optimize crop productivity.
The goal of this work was to explore the integration of the DAP system with grafting on tomato fruit quality.
Furthermore, we harvested fruit at different maturity stages (light red, pink, red) and evaluated quality to determine how DAP and grafting affect the development of quality attributes during ripening on and off the vine.
The experiments were performed at the University of Thessaly.
A split-plot RCBD was utilized with three replications whereby the nutrient system (hydroponic vs.
DAP) was the main plot, and grafting (nongrafted vs. grafted) were the sub-plots.
Grafting and the nutrient system did not significantly affect the titratable acidity, sugar-acid ratio, or dry matter of the fruit.
On-vine ripened fruit had a significantly higher sugar-acid ratio at the light red and red stage than fruit ripened off-vine.
The DAP system produced fruit with comparable lycopene and β-carotene content red stage compared to the hydroponic control.
Grafting also did not impact carotenoid concentrations at the red stage.
More research is needed to determine how the integration of these technologies will impact the quality of tomatoes and other fruiting vegetables commonly grown in greenhouses.
Authors
T. Jenkins, E.D. Pliakoni, C. Rivard, M. Aslanidou, N. Katsoulas
Keywords
aquaponics, decoupled system, rootstock, hydroponic
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